Breaking Down ‘Silicon Valley’s Changing Opening Credits for Season 4

With Silicon Valley back in our lives, we’re finally back in the world of hardcore tech mockery. Season 4 has marked some major changes for the critically-acclaimed show, from Dinesh’s (Kumail Nanjiani) run as CEO to Richard’s (Thomas Middleditch) quest to create a brand new internet. This season is more ambitious than ever before, and that quality has translated into one of the most delightful and underrated aspects of this HBO comedy, its superb opening credits.

As I’ve dissected before, Silicon Valley’s 10-second credits have gone a long way since its first deflating Napster balloon. Whereas Season 1’s opening sequence served as more of an homage to all things related to tech, each subsequent season has become a bit more barbed, diving into serious tech commentary and criticism. This season, the jokes have played out even faster, the number of mocked companies has drastically increased, and the jokes are sharper than even. To see what went into creating some of the most impressive opening graphics on television, Decider talked to Carol Wong, VP and Executive Producer of yU+Co, the production company behind the credits. Wong spoke about how closely her company works with the creative force behind Silicon Valley, what the team’s favorite gag is, and what topical tech jokes ended up on the cutting room floor.

“We work directly with [Mike Judge] and Alec Berg. This is our fourth year doing it,” Wong said. “The first meeting was quite intimidating just because of who he is, but it was great. They’re lovely to work with and they know their show inside and out, and they know everything that’s going on [in the tech industry].”

According to Wong, the team at yU+Co and the Silicon Valley team start to brainstorm ideas for the opening credits a few months before the show goes into production. Both teams do their tech industry research, narrowing down a year’s worth of Valley news and trends into the top dozen or so ideas. Credits are typically finished about a month before the new season of Silicon Valley premieres because of post production on HBO’s end. “You start with six [changes], but then, by the time you’re done there’s like twenty different things that have changed.”

Updating the credits from season to season can be a time-consuming process. The team makes sure it updates the logos of all its remaining companies, indicates which companies have been bought out other companies, and removes any startups that have died from the previous year. Some of those removals have become part of the the joke, like in Season 4’s opening credits when Vine is visibly removed from sitting near Twitter to land in a garbage bin already filled with other dead companies.

Photo: HBO

“It’s a constant evolution. Even Season 1 was a pretty dense landscape as far as what we were trying to fit in there. I remember when we first started talking to them and it was like, ‘Aw, a 10-second sequence. There’s so much to do,’ but we got a lot in there,” Wong said. “With each season, we’ve continued to either add on to it or modify it because companies will get bought up. Facebook has been there since the beginning, but then we’ll add Oculus, we’ll add Whatsapp. It’s got Alphabet in there now from last season. We still have Google. So, everything sort of evolves on top of the changing landscape.”

When asked what her favorite joke was from the Season 4 credits, Wong pointed to the show’s most elaborate joke — the Theranos takedown. “It’s sort of everybody’s favorite,” she said. As the camera pans over Silicon Valley, the sign on Theranos falls, and FBI vans start to swarm the building. The gag is a reference to the blood testing company’s litany of scandals that occurred throughout 2016. “We’ve got the FBI in there and if you look really close you actually see them pull out a little blonde character,” said Wong, the blonde character likely being a reference to Theranos founder and figurehead Elizabeth Holmes.

Photo: HBO

Creating these sight gags in such a cramped space is a challenge for everyone involved. “A lot of times we’ll come up with different gags, but it’s got to read in the dense landscape, and it has to read quickly in our 10 seconds. [The Theranos gag] we were able to make work pretty clearly,” she said.

As can be expected, there are some pointed jokes that never make it to air. ”I can’t talk too much about them because there are some that would tie into stories that were happening later on in the season, so we didn’t want to reveal too much of that yet,” Wong said. However, one abandoned idea she can discuss has to do with the Verizon-Yahoo deal. The creative team was unsure if that deal was going to happen by the time Silicon Valley premiered, so they pulled the joke. The deal is now predicted to occur in June of 2017.

Wong also helped clear up a couple of Easter eggs that confused this writer. For example, the Yahoo bus of seasons past has been replaced in Season 4 by a house that’s surrounded by angry people. According to Wong, that’s meant to comment on the extreme price of housing in the Valley. The people around the house are protesting the increasing costs. Also, it’s not your imagination. Lyft’s balloon is bigger from last year, a change that was made to indicate the increasing rivalry between the company and Uber. Even Didi, China’s well-loved ride-sharing app alternative, makes a brief appearance in Season 4’s credits.

“I hate to talk too much about it only because half the fun in discovering these things yourself. It’s like a cheat list,” Wong said. Fair enough. I’ll be uncovering the rest Silicon Valley’s credits with my pause button.

New episodes of Silicon Valley Season 4 premiere on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.